Tamannaah is Tops

Pretty girl-next-door Tamannaah Bhatia developed a streak of luck in her career when she changed her name from Tamanna. “I did change my spelling to Tamannaah – spelled with an extra ‘a’ and ‘h’ now – to bring more luck as suggested by noted numerologist Niraj Manchanda,” she says. “At that time, I signed Happy Days and this small-budget film turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters in Telugu. My life changed in a big way as I went on to bag some meaty roles.”

After Happy Days, Tamannaah had another big personal hit with Kalloori, for which she was nominated for a Filmfare South Best Actress Award. She is currently filming four movies in both Kollywood and Tollywood. It can only be a matter of time now before she follows the route of many other Southern beauties and heads towards Mumbai.

Would she be prepared to take on more glamorous roles – do an item number perhaps? “Please don’t label me as a glam girl as I want to do good performance here,” she says, “I don’t believe in titillating the audience just for the sake of doing it and will never wear a bikini on screen. I want my parents to be proud of me and the films that I do. They are my biggest supporters and pillars of strength.”